Paul Mccartney Appeals To Prime Minister Over India’S Black-Market Leather Trade

For Immediate Release:
March 30, 2000

Contact:
Joey Penello 757-622-7382

New Delhi — Describing himself as “deeply upset” by the abuse of Indian cows in the international leather trade, Paul McCartney is urging Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to fight the corruption and illegal practices that permeate the transport and slaughter of cows in India-animals whose skins end up in stores in New York, London, and all over the world.

“These cows, bullocks, and calves, their eyes filled with fear and pain, are sent to slaughter, jam-packed together in overcrowded lorries, travelling for hundreds of kilometers without food or water,” McCartney writes in a letter he penned after viewing evidence gathered in India by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). “Those who collapse from exhaustion and injuries are savagely beaten, have hot chili peppers smeared into their eyes, and have their tails deliberately broken at each joint.”

McCartney hopes his letter will convince the Prime Minister to meet with PETA officials who are anxious to brief him on their investigation’s findings.

“The world remembers Mohandas Gandhiji’s saying that a nation can be judged by how it treats its animals,” McCartney tells Vajpayee. “Please do not allow his words to ring hollow in the 21st century.”

McCartney’s letter follows. Photos from PETA’s investigation (copies of those examined by McCartney) are available.